Chapter Fifty-One
Ruby
The streaming continues as Barry beckons my entire family, including Kath and Wicksy, down the stairs. It’s all my mum can do not to dance.
I pull Garett to the side.
“I’m sorry—” we say to each other simultaneously.
“Why are you sorry? I lied to you,” he says.
“Because I didn’t let you explain properly. I didn’t see things from your side and shouldn’t have jumped down your throat. You shouldn’t have lied to me, but it’s all learning, right?” I explain.
His eyes are wide as he processes what I’ve said. I take his hands in mine as he stutters, “So what now?”
As my family jostle each other in front of the camera, Barry grabs the last bite of the bread. “Is this made using your secret ingredients, Garett?” Kalen and Jem are flanking Clive. Let him watch what he tried to destroy.
Garett nods. “I’ll let you know them if you’d like.”
Barry twists his lips as he considers. “Maybe one day. I like not knowing and trying to guess.”
“It took me nearly three months, being around him most days and falling in love with him, to guess the ingredients,” I whisper to Barry.
“We have a love story, too?” Barry says with a laugh. “So tell me, how can I get more of this bread?”
He pops it into his mouth as Garett stutters, but before he can form a sentence, my mum jumps in, “Garett will be head chef, partner, and one of the developers of Every Cloud restaurant, which will be here in the Cotswolds next to the Cloud Cookery School. It opens this summer. A rustic Italian perfect for families, tourists, and those who love excellent food. Every Cloud has a silver lining. No matter what day, the silver lining in your life will be Garett’s food.”
Bloody hell. My mother, always the businesswoman, hasn’t even asked him. His eyebrows reach his hairline. “If you want to,” I whisper. “But no expectations. Ireland waits for you.”
He doesn’t answer, and I try not to let sadness touch the corners of my lips.
My mum still makes the most of Barry’s full mouth and continues her plug for the businesses. “The puddings will be made by my daughter, Ruby, a baker whose cakes will leave you desperate for more, which you can have because she will also run a mail-order brownie and cookie business from our Cloud Cookery School and Restaurant. Her company, Cloud Nine, will fill needs that other things can’t.”
Did I agree to that name? I adore it but still glare at my mum for railroading me. She’s too good.
“There’s so much love and fun here,” Barry says.
“It’s impossible not to love this family,” Garett murmurs, reaching for my hand. He brushes his lips across my knuckles. “Especially this one. I fell in love with Ruby around the same time I fell in love with her baking. I expect she’ll be running sessions at the cookery school if she can find the time, although she’ll never make what she made today again.”
I shiver as he kisses my hands. “That was just to right some wrongs.”
“How did you work out my secret ingredients?” Garett asks me.
“When you weren’t with me, I thought about you. I even dreamt about you. That’s what it took to learn what went in your pasta,” I say.
He understands instantly. One of the key ingredients was cinnamon, but so were raisins soaked in a particular orange drink that he would give Flora when she was bullied and fennel roasted with a sauce that smells similar to his mum’s microwave-burnt pasta. There was also something that he sneaked into our picnic when we watched Bake Off . No one will ever guess these unless they listen to his stories and fall in love with him as I did.
Jem and someone from the crew gives out glasses of prosecco. Clive doesn’t get one, obviously.
“Well, there you have it,” Barry says to the camera in his sign-off. “We have a cancelled restauranteur, a love story, intrigue, passion, and secret ingredients, but at the heart of all this is a love of cooking and baking, which I can’t resist. Have a lovely Christmas from me and the Cloud family.” He holds up his glass, and all my family hold theirs up, too. “Cheers.”
“And we’re out,” Jem’s friend says and whispers something to Barry.
Barry turns to us with a beaming smile. “Thank you, everyone. We got more hits on that than anything we’ve ever done. Once the New Year is over, you’ll hear from me. I’d love to feature your cookery school, Every Cloud restaurant, and Ruby’s Cloud Nine in several videos. Maybe we can come to classes and film the opening. Thank you for everything.” He points at Clive. “Clive, a word.”
“I need to speak to Garett,” I say to my family as Garett and I walk to the corner of the room. I turn at the footsteps behind us. Their faces, a mixture of wide eyes, smiles, and furrowed brows, look back at me. “Alone.”
They all grumble as they walk to the seats in the audience.
I pull Garett around a corner. “I need to know, are you still moving to Ireland? I’ll understand if you are, and whether you stay or go, we don’t have to be together if you don’t want and—” Garett presses his finger to my lips.
“Rubes, did you hear me say I fell in love with you earlier?” I nod. “Your dad told me that he knows about us, and nearly nothing would make him happier than us dating except the safe birth of his two imminent grandchildren.”
I grin.
Garett continues, “If you’ll have me, I want to try the boyfriend and girlfriend thing. I want to be an annoying couple who make out in public and laugh at the weirdness of strangers. I’ll be grumpy, and you’ll be more sunshiney than a freaking Barbados holiday, but I want to try what this relationship thing is. I used to fear relationships and thought that work would always come first, but you come first for me, Rubes.” I giggle, and he huffs. “That was not meant to be an innuendo.”
I push my tongue out of my mouth—his finger tastes of cinnamon, orange, and other secret ingredients.
“When did you touch my cake?” I say, my words muffled behind his finger.
“I needed to taste what was so awful. It was hideous,” he grumbles. “I’m annoyed at all the hours I wasted on your baking.”
I lick his finger and wince. He’s got a point.
“Stop distracting me. I’m trying to tell you that I love you and want to be with you,” he says as he chews the gum I gave him.
“I love you, Garett. You’re everything I’ve always needed and so much more. I thought I knew what love was, but then I met you, the grumpiest chef of all time, and I learnt what it is to be respected, valued, and wanted. You make me laugh, you make me cry, and you make me come like I didn’t know was possible. And you like my family.”
“I love your family.”
“Stop distracting me. I’m trying to tell you that I love you and want to be with you,” I reply, using his words while grinning.
Garett picks me up and spins me while laughing. “I love you, Ruby Cloud.” He presses his lips to mine.
“I love you, too, my number one chef,” I say. His lips are soft, and he tastes like those special ingredients.
“I won’t tell Mary Berry if you won’t.”
“Deal,” I manage before his tongue presses my lips apart. I wrap my legs around him.
A round of applause stalls our kisses.
“Rubes, your family is giving us a standing ovation,” he whispers against my lips.
I peek over his shoulder to find my entire family, including Flora, Kath, and Wicksy, cheering us on and clapping. Kath winks and grins. It wouldn’t surprise me if she engineered the snow that brought us together in the first place.
“Could you guys not?” I shout as Garett lowers me to the ground.
“Champ is our family now, too,” Dad says.
There’s a weird moaning. We all stare at Kalen and Amber. “I hate to break this beautiful moment up, but Amber is, um, needing a hospital.”
Everyone freezes.
Amber holds out her hands. “The excitement and the love story—”
“And the curry you ate for breakfast,” Kalen adds.
“I told you not to say,” she hisses and Kalen blushes. “The love story inspired the babies. We need to get to the hospital.”
Suddenly, Jem runs around shouting that he needs a phone while Flora points at the one in his hand. Wicksy screams that he doesn’t want to see a birth while Mum asks the sound man for hot towels, and Dad tells Barry what names he wants to give the twins. Meanwhile, Kath and Kalen are helping Amber out of the side door that leads to the car park.
Garett turns to me. “Your family—”
“Shouldn’t be allowed out in public?” I offer with a shrug.
“Your family and Flora are the third best things to happen in my life after you and Cookie.” He kisses me on the cheek and takes my hand as we slip out the side door, following my sister. It looks like it will be a hospital Cloud Christmas this year. Those poor nurses.